Digging Medicinals, thank you! It's so freakin' short though! Praying for Ministry of Defence next.
You can pre-listen to the album if you have an hmv near you: https://twitter.com/hmvsheffield/status ... 6536709120

BRB, taking a flight to the UK!

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PJ Harvey: Complete Guide

http://www.clashmusic.com/features/pj-harvey-complete-guide

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I really disliked Homo Sappy Blues when I saw it live.

Very strange 8/10 review: http://www.loudandquiet.com/2016/04/pj-harvey-the-hope-six-demolition-project-album-review/.

Apparently, its autor thinks the whole album is written in (and about) Washington.

Shitty stereogum review: http://www.stereogum.com/1870303/premat ... valuation/

"It’s poverty tourism. That’s all it is. Literal poverty tourism."

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Thank you! Medicinals is a beautiful surprise compared to the live version, I like them both

edit: I can't imagine what the art cover for this song will be, it seems to me that every song will have its own shield

While a negative review, it was a solid read on the album. I know, from a musical perspective, I'm going to love this album. Lyrically speaking, I don't love or hate what she's done. I can see why people will object. The author had a point when he said that it's one thing to drive around and write down what you see, but it's another to actually try and do something (anything) about it- aside from sit in a car and judge a scene from the comfort of your vehicle. Of course, we may not know the whole story. But I wonder what would have happened if she would have gotten out of the car to give the child a "dollar, dollar"? Interesting way to look at it, either way! I love how much press she's getting for this album.

This guy surely is not the smartest cookie in the jar, his understanding on activism is almost irritating, he is so stupid, I have no idea what he wanted Polly to do, start and NGO and help the people she saw or sit and pray with them in the pavement?

Is a little bit concerning how pseudo alike are most writers working in the music journalism field these days. I've seen many terrible reviews, regardless whether they are positive or negative, where the reviewers mistake or misread lyrics, name of the songs and have no clue about the background surrounding the piece they are reviewing, and guys like this Tom from Stereogum with no credentials to talk about politics reviewing a political album.

And the Pitchfork review is not even out yet, brace yourselves!



Howard, this is naive, politically and life wise speaking. She is there as an observer, she doesn't live there and most importantly, she is there as a witness, she will leave. Journalists in the field are advised to never get involved, you can "buy them a meal" (for example) thinking you are helping, but you are just helping yourself to sleep well at night, that's the sort of thing she could do related to the boy of 'Dollar Dollar' and this is called populism, not activism. And is important to mention, she obviously "got out of the car", 'Chain of Keys' is all about one of these encounters, just because not all songs are about encounters doesn't mean she didn't wander around and talked to people and got to know their reality.

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I think saying she was merely chauffeured around during her travels is very reductive of her work and effort. If you read the Uncut interview you would see how much time she actually spent in those places, and the locals she spoke to. Knowing her, she probably researched the shit out of those places beforehand too. You have a lot of male artists that have written protest songs about places they've never even visited. Why is it just Polly getting shit for this? And let's say she sat in a decked out limo the whole time in Afghanistan or wherever - she's still doing more than anyone else is.

It annoys me when people complain about "slacktivism" and yet they're solely complaining about those actually doing something about it.

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I think Polly says truth and the truth is bitter, the truth hurts. When she was making albums about inner side, she also said truth. She is honest and today's politics and music industry do not like this.

To clarify- it was the reviewer's thoughts, not mine. I just thought it was interesting that he brought that up.

the Guardians review should be interesting! I wonder if they will hate it

I honestly expected these reviews, if you are american you know there is almost a need for americans to be outraged over everything. Esp. college students. Everything is "shaming" or "appropriation" or whatever new buzzword the pc groups are using. a lot of the time they express their "outrage" on twitter. its very annoying.
some of these reviews are just bizarre, like she has some sort of obligation to come up with a solution for these difficult problems. Like her songs are being submitted to the UN as papers to fix the problems or something. She's just showing what she's seen.